The  World-Interest  in  the  Evangelization  of  France 

ADDRESS 

of 

JOHN  R.  MOTT,  LL.D. 

At  the  Thirty- First  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
American  McAll  Association 

at  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  April  28,  1914 

It  is  a  distinguished  honor,  of  which  I  am  keenly  sensible, 
to  be  permitted  to  meet  with  so  many,  many  people  who  feel 
a  responsiveness  to  duty,  a  consuming  desire  to  be  found  where 
Christ  would  have  them,  doing  his  will  and  not  their  own  will ; 
and  it  adds  immensely  to  one’s  pleasure  to  be  permitted  to'  as¬ 
sociate  one’s  self  in  even  the  smallest  way  with  a  great  body 
of  Christians  who  honor  our  common  Lord,  especially  in  con¬ 
nection  with  a  cause  like  the  one  which  has  assembled  us  this 
evening.  I  come  to  speak  of  it,  not  as  one  who  is  in  any  way 
officially  related  to  the  enterprise,  but,  simply  as  a  witness  and 
as  a  world  traveler  who  has  been  in  a  position  to  observe  the 
results  of  the  unique  work  being  accomplished  by  the  McAll 
Mission.  I  am  free  to  say  at  the  outset  tonight,  having  studied 
organizations  in  possibly  as  many  as  forty-five  different  nations, 
that  I  know  of  no  society  more  Christlike  in  conception,  more 
wise  in  method  and  plan,  more  economical  in  administration, 
more  apostolic  in  spirit  and  more  refreshing  and  vitalizing  in 
the  impression  it  makes  upon  one  as  one  comes  near  its  opera¬ 
tions.  The  need  of  such  a  work  must  have  impressed  even 
the  most  casual  observer  in  the  French  Republic,  whether  his 
journeys  have  kept  him  largely  in  the  great  cities  or  whether 
they  have  taken  him  out  into  the  interior,  in  the  rural  districts, 
among  the  countless  villages.  - 

We  have  Protestantism  in  France,  and  it  is  a  type  of 
Protestantism  of  which  we  are  not  ashamed  and  for  which 


2 


we  shall  never  apologize.  The  splendid  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  which  brought  into  being  this  wonderful  line  of 
people,  are  principles  for  which  you  and  I  will  continue  to 
stand  while  life  lasts.  They  have  made  possible  the  generating 
of  a  Christian  host  and  a  Christian  witness  which  have  enriched 
many  of  the  nations  of  our  so-called  Protestant  Christendom, 
as  well  as  other  parts  of  the  wide  world.  But  that  Protestant 
body,  speaking  of  it  at  the  best,  numbers  over  600,000  adherents 
— we  will  not  speak  of  them  all  as  communicants.  And,  like 
Protestantism  in  other  countries,  it  has  its  different  sections. 
There  is  what  we  might  call  a  very  vital  and  believing  section. 
There  is  one  that  we  might  call  more  formal  and  without  real 
power.  At  best  therefore  we  cannot  look  to  that  body  of 
Christians  to  permeate  with  the  principles  and  spirit  of  Jesus 
a  vast  population  of  forty  millions,  not  to  speak  of  the  colonies 
of  France.  In  that  Republic  likewise  we  find  the  Roman  Cath¬ 
olic  Church,  and  in  my  judgment  we  find  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  one  of  its  best  forms,  and  exhibiting  some  of  the 
very  best  phases  of  its  life  and  work.  Speaking  of  that  Church 
as  one  would,  likewise,  of  other  great  Christian  communions, 
one  must  admit  that  there  is  much  going  forward,  in  its  name 
which  does  not  remind  one  of  the  principles  and  character  and 
spirit  of  Christ,  and  yet  I  would  not  be  misunderstood.  I  have 
many  personal  friends  among  the  members  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  in  the  French  Republic  as  well  as  in  other  lands.  I 
would  not  speak  words  that  would  seem  to  be  uncharitable.  In 
fact,  I  am  one  of  those  who  entertain  the  hope  that  just  as  one 
time  the  Christians  called  into  being  by  that  movement  initiated 
by  Christ  and  the  apostles  found  themselves  in  a  great  unity, 
so  the  day  is  coming  when  we  will  be  brought  back  into  a  realiz¬ 
ing  sense  of  our  oneness.  Being  one  in  our  belief  in  the  deity 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  being  one  in  our  desire  to  become 
like  Him ;  and  I  find  as  I  have  mingled  with  the  Roman 
Catholics  that  there  are  many  who  would  say  that  as  fer¬ 
vently  as  any  of  us  in  this  room, — being  one  in  the  determina¬ 
tion  that  some  day  the  inhabited  earth  shall  be  coextensive  with 
the  reign  of  Christ, — we  are  one  whether  sometimes  we  feel  we 
are  or  not,  or  whether  we  believe  we  are,  or  not.  And  the 
day  is  coming  when  the  things  that  make  possible  a  real  unity 


3 


and  a  realizing  sense  of  that  unity  will  triumph  just  as  surely 
as  Christ  prayed  that  we  all  might  be  one. 

A  few  months  ago  when  I  was  in  Southern  India  I  was 
entertained  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Madras  Presi¬ 
dency,  and  -on  coming  out  of  one  of  the  sessions  of  a  confer¬ 
ence  in  Madras  which  I  was  conducting  in  the  name  of  the 
Continuation  Committee  of  the  Edinburgh  Conference  on  be¬ 
half  of  all  the  missionary  societies  of  Protestant  Christianity, 
the  Governor  asked  me,  “Have  you  investigated  the  experience 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  regarding  this  problem  you 
have  been  discussing  this  morning  ?” — that  was  the  problem  of 
how  to  get  more  of  the  strongest  Indian  young  men  to  devote 
themselves  to  Christian  service.  I  said,  “Your  Excellency,  I 
have  not  studied  it  here  in  India.  When  I  was  working  on  the 
problem  of  the  future  leadership  for  America  and  the  British 
Isles  I  did  study  it,  I  did  have  conversations  with  prominent 
ecclesiastics  of  the  Church  of  Rome.”  “Well,”  he  said,  “you 
made  a  mistake  if  you  overlook  them  here  in  India,”  and  he 
insisted  on  sending  for  the  Archbishop  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  Southern  India.  He  introduced  me  to  him,  and  then 
shut  us  in  a  room  together.  We  discussed  this  question  with 
great  interest,  and  I  did  learn  things  that  were  very  useful. 
After  we  had  finished  the  conversation  on  that  subject  I  was 
led  to  drift  into  the  subject  matter  of  the  drawing  together  of 
Christians,  and  I  found  that  he  was  very  much  interested.  I 
asked  him  what  we  must  do  to  bring  about  a  genuine  unity 
some  day  of  all  Christians,  and  quick  as  a  flash  he  gave  these 
three  points,  showing  that  he  had  thought  much  upon  the 
subject.  He  said,  “In  the  first  place,  we  must  pray  for  it; 
in  the  second  place,  gentleness  and  courtesy” — there  is  a  great 
deal  involved  in  those  two  words — “and,  in  the  third  place,” 
he  said,  “we  must  see  more  of  one  another;  that  is,  we  who 
call  ourselves  Christians.”  Why  should  we  be  surprised  at 
answers  like  that  coming  from  that  source?  You  will  find,  as 
you  put  your  lives  alongside  of  people  who  would  die  for  the 
deity  of  our  Lord,  that  there  are  many  other  things  in  which 
they  believe  as  strongly  as  we  do.  Therefore,  I  say,  we  will 
speak  no  word  of  disparagement  concerning  a  great  com¬ 
munion  at  the  center  of  which  is  this  cornerstone  principle  of 


4 


the  lordship  of  Jesus  Christ.  Making  all  allowance  that  we 
may  for  the  sins,  the  superstitions,  the  abominations  and  the 
ignorance,  all  of  these  things,  the  fact  still  remains  that  there 
is  a  witness  against  agnosticism,  against  infidelity,  against  im¬ 
morality,  against  intemperance,  against  the  influences  that  sap 
society  and  nations  at  the  very  base. 

I  understand  that  the  McAll  Mission  is  not  a  propaganda 
to  cut  into  the  life  of  any  church  that  bears  the  name  of 
Christ,  but  that  it  is  a  propaganda  to  gather  into  His  fold 
those  who  do  not  acknowledge  the  name  of  Christ.  And  it  is 
well  for  us  to  remember  that  at  the  maximum  there  are  in 
France  tonight  not  more  than  ten  millions  of  people  who  would 
call  themselves  adherents  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and,  I  have 
said,  only  possibly  a  little  more  than  600,000  who  would  call 
themselves  adherents  of  the  Protestant  Church.  What  about 
the  other  thirty  millions?  That  is  the  field  before  the  McAll 

*•  1  r  •  -  .  ^  j> 

Mission.  They  are  not  out  there  trying  to  pick  flaws  with  any¬ 
body  that  bears  the  Christian  name,  but  they  are  there  to  seek 
to  draw  into  vital  relation  to  the  living  Christ  these  millions 
who  know  not  so  much  as  that  there  is  a  Christ.  Believe  me, 
as  a  traveler  who  has  studied  nearly  every  mission  field  at 
first  hand,  there  are  not  millions,  but  tens  of  millions  of  people 
in  France  today  who  are  as  much  without  Christ  as  the  tens 
of  millions  whom  I  mingled  with  in  India,  in  the  heart  of 
Africa,  in  the  inland  provinces  of  China  or  the  Turkish  Em¬ 
pire.  They  know  not  that  there  is  a  Christ,  or  that  there  was 
a  Christ.  Is  not  here  enough  to  call  into  being  a  specialized 
agency  representative  of  our  common  Protestant  Christianity, 
to  introduce  these  peoples  to  the  life  that  is  life  indeed?  It  is 
not  surprising  in  a  land  of  such  great  dearth,  of  these  great 
open  spaces  of  need,  that,  in  my  repeated  journeys  which  have 
taken  me  to  that  country  almost  once  every  year  for  twenty- 
five  years,  I  have  found  a  breakdown  of  character,  a  moral 
collapse,  the  same  as  one  finds  in  any  part  of  the  world  where 
old  restraints  have  been  thrown  off  or  where  people  are,  as  the 
Germans  would  say,  confessions  los,  that  is,  cut  loose  from 
all  religion  and  all  adequately  restraining  efforts.  It  is  not 
strange  that  I  have  found  moral  collapse,  and  it  is  not  surpris¬ 
ing  that  the  most  discerning  and  patriotic  of  the  public  men  in 


5 


France  today,  regardless  of  their  religious  views,  are  heavily 
burdened  with  solicitude  because  of  this  breakdown  of  char¬ 
acter  of  men  in  every  relationship.  My  journeys  in  France 
have  thrown  me  very  intimately  with  what  we  might  call  the 
educated  classes,  the  students,  the  professors,  the  professional 
men,  the  men  in  government  service,  and '  the  men  of  the 
better  classes  socially,  and  it  has  meant  much  to  me  as  I  have 
mingled  with  these  discerning  people  who  are  pondering  the 
meaning  of  facts  to  find  them  so  gravely  concerned  at  this 
present  moment  with  this  indescribable  need  and  with  the  in¬ 
ability  of  present  missions  and  present  means  to  meet  this  need. 

Happily,  I  am  glad  to  say  at  once,  there  are  wonderful 
signs  of  encouragement,  due  in  large  part  to  the  work  of  this 
Mission,  not  so  much  by  what  it  has  done  directly,  although 
that  alone  has  been  sufficient  to  justify,  in  my  judgment,  every 
claim  which  has  ever  been  made  about  it  with  which  I  am 
familiar.  I  think  that  with  the  McAll  Mission,  as  with  any 
other  work  in  which  Christ  truly  abides,  the  indirect  results 
sometimes  surprise  us  even  more  than  the  direct  results.  Little 
did  that  Mission  expect  when  it  felt  its  way  out  and  found  itself 
that  the  by-products  of  its  work  would  sometimes  bulk  more 
largely  than  its  direct  results.  When  I  see,  for  example,  what 
the  McAll  Mission  has  done  to  release  vitality  inside  of  the 
Protestant  Christian  communion,  as  I  myself  well  know,  I  see 
one  of  its  large  by-products.  When  I  notice  the  object  lesson 
it  has  presented,  the  present-day  evidences  of  the  reality,  the 
vitality  and  the  conquering  power  of  pure  Christianity  in  that 
great  vantage  ground  the  French  Republic,  as  we  shall  see  later 
tonight,  I  see  another  one  of  the  great  by-products  of  that  work 
released  by  the  life,  the  endless  life,  of  Christ  through  this  Mis¬ 
sion  ;  and  when  I  have  found  in  my  work  among  the  students 
that  one  of  the  factors  which  had  done  much  to  help  give  a 
sense  of  reality  to  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  and  found  my 
hands  greatly  strengthened  in  a  quarter  where  I  had  not  ex¬ 
pected  such  strength  to  come  from,  I  discovered  another  one 
of  these  by-products  in  the  wondrous  influence  of  any  work 
done  in  humility  and  in  spirituality  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
even  in  obscure  places,  as  most  of  its  crowning  work  has  been 
done. 


6 


I  have  been  impressed  not  only  by  the  need  of  this  work, 
but  by  the  tremendous  strategy  of  it  all.  We  sometimes  hear 
statements  made  about  France  that  are  so  out  of  accord  with 
what  we  see  as  we  travel  over  the  world  that  we  wonder  that 
these  statements  have  been  possible  when  we  consider  their 
sources.  One  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  England,  a  name  that 
I  will  not  quote  tonight,  has  within  half  a  generation  made 
remarks  with  reference  to  France  that  are  so  contradictory  to 
the  marvelous  outreach  of  the  influence  of  that  nation  in  the 
world  today  that  one  believes  it  is  wise  that  we  dwell  a  moment 
on  this  point  of  the  strategy  of  anything  done  in  France.  I 
was  telling  some  of  the  business  men  today  in  an  entirely  dif¬ 
ferent  connection,  that  the  place  to  bring  power  to  bear  is 
where  power  can  be  most  widely  and  most  advantageously 
distributed.  I  had  in  mind  an  entirely  different  part  of  the 
world  when  I  made  that  statement,  but  with  aptness  I  might 
make  that  statement  here  tonight  concerning  France  itself. 
My  work  has  taken  me  repeatedly  to  the  other  Latin  countries 
of  Europe,  such  as  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy  and  the  Latin  sec¬ 
tion  of  Belgium  and  of  Switzerland,  and  I  have  been  amazed 
to  find  that  thoughtful  people  as  well  as  the  masses  are  in¬ 
fluenced  more  profoundly  by  what  takes  place  in  and  through 
France  than  by  what  takes  place  in  and  through  any  other 
country  in  the  world.  I  am  speaking  of  something  that  is  true 
today,  not  simply  of  some  other  day  in  the  past.  When  I  was 
in  South  America  and  in  other  parts  of  Latin  America, 
especially  in  the  more  advanced  of  the  Latin  republics  of  this 
hemisphere,  such  as  Brazil,  Argentina,  and  Uruguay,  it  was 
surprising  to  me — I  do  not  wonder  at  it  so  much  now,  but  I 
did  then,  that  all  of  those  universities  in  the  Latin  American 
world  and  their  educated  classes  looked  back  to  the  University 
of  Paris  as  the  Mecca  in  the  university  world.  I  found  very 
few  professors  in  Latin  America,  all  the  way  from  Mexico  to 
Argentina,  who  have  not  taken,  as  we  would  say  in  English,  a 
degree  in  one  of  the  French  universities  or  who  have  not  carried 
forward  some  of  their  studies  under  the  influence  of  France, 
and  I  found  that  among  the  visitors  who  travel  in  the  Latin 
American  republics  none  received  such  a  welcome  as  the 
French.  Right  now  on  the  Atlantic  ocean  a  man  is  traveling 


7 


whom  I  have  sent  there,  Emmanuel  Sautter,  of  France.*  They 
are  going  to  hold  an  important  Christian  association  conven¬ 
tion  in  Montevideo,  to  begin  in  a  few  weeks,  and  they  wanted 
me  to  pick  out  “somewhere  in  the  world,”  they  said,  “a  man 
that  will  be  the  most  helpful  to  us  in  outlining  our  program 
down  here  in  this  great  convention  where  we  are  to  have  rep¬ 
resentatives  of  all  of  the  principal  South  American  republics. 
And  I  did  not  need  to  think  long.  I  did  not  pick  out  a  man 
in  the  United  States,  I  did  not  pick  out  a  man  in  Germany  or 
the  British  Isles,  but  I  went  over  to  France  and  took  one  of 
the  very  best  of  these  French  Protestant  families.  I  chose  a 
man  in  touch  with  the  modern  age,  a  man  with  the  French 
mentality.  With  the  abundant  access  that  he  will  have  when 
he  goes  to  South  America  he  will  do  more  than  any  ten  of  us 
Anglo-Saxons  could  possibly  do. 

Speaking  of  these  Latin  countries  of  Europe  and  the  west¬ 
ern  hemisphere  reminds  me  that  I  have  struck  off,  as  it  were, 
a  generalization  that  connotes  the  Roman  Catholic  world.  In 
anything  that  you  and  I  wish  to  do  to  release  truth  or  influences 
which  we  believe  we  possess  that  would  be  useful  to  that  other 
great  family  of  Christians,  I  know  of  no  better  way  to  release 
it  than  by  way  of  the  French  Republic.  It  is  not  always  by 
frontal  attacks,  but,  in  these  days,  more  frequently  on  the 
flank  that  we  make  our  most  effective  influence  felt.  When  I 
was  going  through  that  interesting  part  of  the  world,  two  years 
ago,  the  Balkan  States,  such  countries  as  Bulgaria,  Servia 
and  Greece — and  I  ought  also  to  add  Roumania,  which  I  did 
not  visit  at  that  time,  but  it  should  be  included,  of  course,  in 
the  group — I  was  very  much  interested  to  find,  contrary  to 
what  I  had  been  told  by  some  people  who  ought  to  have  known, 
that  the  key  to  the  unlocking  of  the  Balkan  universities  is 
held  securely,  even  in  these  days,  in  the  hands  of  the  French; 
and  I  found  that  what  helped  me  most  there  was  not  to  talk 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon’s  precedents,  not  to  tell  of  the  wonder 
works  of  God  in  England  and  America  and  Scotland  and 
Australia,  still  less  to  talk  about  what  was  being  done  in  the 

*  Mr.  Emmanuel  Sautter  is  the  son  of  Mr.  Louis  Sautter,  a  life¬ 
long  friend  of  Dr.  McAll,  and  for  twenty-five  years  the  Honorary 
President  of  the  McAll  Mission. 


name  of  Christ  in  Germany.  It  was  of  some  value  to  remind 
them  of  the  present-day  evidences  of  Christianity  in  lands  like 
Japan  and  British  India,  but  what  was  the  touchstone  every¬ 
where  was  to  speak  of  the  little  beginnings  and  the  vital  pro¬ 
cesses  in  France  and  French-speaking  Switzerland,  and,  to  a 
limited  extent,  in  Italy.  So  I  have  been  arranging  within  a 
few  months  to  send  two  of  the  leaders  of  the  Protestant  forces 
in  France  to  visit  all  of  these  Balkan  States.  One  of  them  has 
just  finished  the  trip  and  we  shall  soon  have  his  report.  I 
refer  to  Professor  Allier. 

I  read  a  book  when  I  was  down  there  in  the  Near  East 
called  ‘‘The  Danger  Zone  of  Europe.”  It  is  a  misnomer, 
because  the  book  deals  not  only  with  southeastern  Europe, 
but  with  the  Asiatic  Levant,  and  even  Egypt;  but,  be  the  title 
what  it  may,  it  is  a  very  suggestive  book,  and  the  fact  remains 
that  in  the  belt  that  reaches  from  Russia  down  across  the  Bal¬ 
kans,  Austria  and  Turkey  into  North  Africa,  is  one  of  the 
great  danger  zones.  I  might  say  with  accuracy  there  is  a 
danger  zone  in  almost  every  part  of  the  world  today  where 
the  races  are  brought  against  one  another,  with  their  conflict¬ 
ing  sets  of  ideals  and  civilizations.  We  are  experiencing  it 
sadly  right  here  in  North  America  in  these  present  days  of  un¬ 
fortunate  misunderstanding.  Misunderstanding  is  the  word.  If 
we  understood  one  another  on  both  sides  of  the  Rio  Grande 
the  last  thing  we  would  be  doing  would  be  filling  the  columns 
of  our  papers  in  these  countries  as  we  are  today.  It  is  misun¬ 
derstanding  from  beginning  to  end.  We  are  different  mentali¬ 
ties,  we  are  looking  through  different  glasses,  we  have  different 
heredities.  Well,  that  certainly  is  a  great  danger  zone  down 
there  in  southeastern  Europe,  and  I  thought  to  myself,  “Thank 
God  that  we  have  back  in  France  the  native,  vital  Christianity 
to  make  it  in  a  true  sense  not  only  a  field,  but,  now,  a  force  to 
be  wielded  on  behalf  of  other  parts  of  the  world,  to  the  infinite 
enrichment  of  Protestant  France,  let  it  be  said,  as  well  as 
Roman  Catholic  France. 

Speaking  of  the  missionary  influence  of  France  reminds 
me  that  I  should  speak  of  both  Protestants  and  Catholics.  I 
know  of  no  Protestant  church  in  Europe  or  America  which 
in  proportion  to  its  membership  and  its  wealth  is  conducting  a 


9 


more  splendid  piece  of  foreign  missionary  work  than  the 
Protestant  church  in  France.  It  is  simply  wonderful  and 
almost  unbelievable.  I  should  say  a  good  word  also  for  the 
Church  of  Rome,  because  I  remember  that  one-third  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  missionaries  of  the  world  come  from  France, 
and  that  the  largest  financial  backing  of  the  missionary  orders 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  comes  from  the  French  Republic. 
There  is  missionary  spirit  there.  Whenever  it  is  released  it 
surges  over  the  world. 

Not  only  the  Balkan  States  are  opened  readily  by  a  key  in 
the  hands  of  the  French,  but  even  parts  of  the  Levant.  The 
other  day  when  I  was  down  there  I  called  at  Smyrna,  one  of 
the  largest  Greek  communities  in  the  world.  On  landing  I 
went  up  to  call  on  the  Metropolitan  of  the  great  church  there, 
the  Greek  Church.  I  went  in  and  introduced  myself.  He  said, 
“You  don’t  need  to  introduce  yourself  to  me.  Right  here  we 
have  two  of  your  addresses  that  we  have  just  been  translating 
into  Greek  to  circulate  among  the  Greek  reading  classes  here  in 
Smyrna.”  I  said,  “How  did  you  get  hold  of  those  ?”  He  said, 
“Two  of  our  priests  were  in  Europe  studying  French  and  they 
happened  to  hear  some  addresses  you  were  giving  to  the 
students,  and  they  sent  them  back  here  in  French  and  we  are 
now  translating  them  into  Greek.”  I  found  up  and  down  the 
Levant  that  French  influence,  notwithstanding  the  wonderful 
activity  of  Germany  in  the  last  fifteen  years — and  it  has  been 
something  surprising — is  still  the  dominant  influence  in  the 
Asiatic  Levant. 

A  word  should  be  said  about  Russia  in  this  connection. 
We  omit  Russia  too  much  in  these  days,  and  although  our 
meeting  tonight  is  in  the  interest  of  France,  it  is  directly  in 
point  to  speak  of  the  greatest  ally  of  France,  the  Russian  Em¬ 
pire.  When  I  first  went  to  Russia,  about  fifteen  years  ago,  I 
found  it  impossible  to  get  at  the  educated  classes  to  bring  to 
them  the  message  of  vital  Christianity.  The  only  address  I 
was  permitted  to  give  in  Russia  that  year  was  in  the  British 
and  American  chapel.  They  told  me  the  spies  would  be  there, 
and  I  remember  what  an  anxious  three  days  I  had.  At  last 
I  chose  a  subject  that  I  thought  would  be  entirely  safe,  the 
subject  of  “secret  prayer.”  If  I  had  taken  any  subject  that 


10 


suggested  association  or  organization  or  movement  or  com¬ 
bination  or  international  cooperation  or  vital  energy  being 
released,  there  would  have  been  alarm.  Such  meetings  as  I 
had  among  the  students,  I  had  between  midnight  and  four 
o’clock  in  the  morning,  in  secret.  If  I  had  to  do  it  over  again 
I  would  not  run  those  risks,  not  so  much  for  myself  as  what 
I  incurred  for  these  Russian  students  who  pressed  in  upon  me. 
In  contrast  to  that,  let  me  remind  you  that  when  I  was  in  Russia 
a  few  years  ago  the  largest  theaters  and  public  buildings 
would  not  hold  the  multitudes  of  Russian  students,  agnostics 
and  Jews — very  few  who  call  themselves  Christians.  They 
look  upon  the  Church  as  an  instrument  of  oppression.  They 
hate  the  Church.  They  fight  the  Church.  It  has  torn  apart 
too  many  of  their  families,  it  has  sent  too  many  of  their  rela¬ 
tives  to  the  mines  of  Siberia  and  to  the  Transcaucasus.  There¬ 
fore,  superficially,  they  count  out  all  Christianity  because  of 
some  things  that  are  done  in  the  name  of  organized  Christianity. 
But  they  came  to  hear  me  as  a  representative  of  the  young  men 
and  the  young  women  of  the  universities  of  other  nations ;  and 
although  I  could  not  speak  a  word  of  Russian  and  they  could 
not  speak  a  word  of  English,  generally  speaking,  they  would 
throng  me  on  every  occasion.  They  would  not  only  listen  to  me 
speak  for  three  hours  on  end,  giving  three  lectures,  one  after 
the  other,  until  I  had  exhausted  two  interpreters,  but  they 
would  press  upon  me  outside  of  the  lectures.  Though  they 
were  very  poor  students  they  would  pay  extra  fare  to  get  on 
the  street  car  to  travel  with  me.  They  would  come  to  my 
hotel  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night ;  not  only  when  I  said 
I  would  be  glad  to  receive  individuals  and  delegations,  but 
at  the  most  unlikely  hours  they  would  come.  They  seemed  to 
think  that  if  they  could  get  near  me,  coming  as  I  did  in  the 
name  of  the  students  of  the  other  nations,  they  might  find  reality 
and  something  that  would  bring  them  relief.  You  know,  they 
are  desperate.  Though  they  are  without  religion,  they  are  the 
most  religious  students  I  have  ever  met,  not  excepting  those  in 
India- — by  which  I  mean,  they  are  responsive  to  reality.  They 
are  ready  to  pay  prices  that  put  us  in  a  country  like  this  abso¬ 
lutely  to  shame.  What  will  not  a  Russian  student  pay,  or  any 
Russian,  to  find  the  truth,  that  the  truth  may  set  him  free ! 


[  I 


More  of  them  commit  suicide  each  year  in  Russia  than  in  all 
other  nations  of  the  world  put  together.  I  am  speaking  of  the 
students.  It  is  logic.  From  the  point  of  view  of  their  pessi¬ 
mistic  philosophy  death  is  a  mere  detail  to  them  if  it  stands 
in  the  way  of  their  finding  what  they  are  after.  So,  I  say, 
my  heart  was  deeply  stirred  by  this  wondrous  responsiveness. 
You  will  be  interested  to  know,  therefore,  that  seeds  were  scat¬ 
tered  here  and  there  that  have  already  germinated.  Many 
Bible  classes  have  been  formed,  and  these  have  been  evolved 
into  Christian  societies  or  associations  of  the  men  students  and 
the  women  students ;  and  at  Princeton  last  May,  at  the  confer¬ 
ence  of  the  World’s  Student  Christian  Federation,  the  latest 
movement  to  be  received  into  the  World’s  Federation  was  the 
Christian  Student  Movement  of  Russia,  being  developed  inside 
the  Russian  orthodox  Church  largely,  but  with  a  platform  suffi¬ 
ciently  broad  to  include  all  Christians  who  acknowledge  the 
deity  of  our  Lord. 

Now,  my  experiences  in  Russia  have  shown  me  that 
France  holds  a  position  of  influence  absolutely  unique  among 
the  great  masses  of  that  people.  And  it  is  a  great  people.  One 
time  when  I  went  over  there  President  Roosevelt  gave  me  a 
letter  to  read  to  the  young  men  of  Russia.  There  was  a  sen¬ 
tence  in  it  that  I  could  not  accept,  but  I  do  accept  it  now.  He 
said,  “No  land  more  than  Russia  holds  the  fate  of  the  coming 
years.”  I  see  his  meaning  now.  Located  as  it  is  in  the  belt 
of  power,  where  we  find  lands  like  China  and  Japan,  Germany, 
France  and  England,  Canada  and  the  United  States,  blending 
the  strongest  strains  of  Asia  and  Europe,  having  the  three 
mightiest  religions,  Christianity,  Judaism  (there  are  as  many 
Jews  there  as  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world),  Mohammedanism 
(contrary  to  the  popular  impression,  about  twenty  million  Mos¬ 
lems),  with  capacities  for  vicariousness  and  courage  second 
to  none  among  all  the  peoples  in  the  world,  it  is  a  land  of  the 
coming  age.  How  wise  we  are,  therefore,  my  friends,  to  do 
by  way  of  France  what  we  will  not  be  permitted  to  do  in  any 
large  way  by  frontal  attack  on  Russia.  Anything  which  God 
will  let  us  do  for  Russia  on  the  flank  we  are  wise  to  do. 

Moreover,  when  I  think  of  the  strategy  of  work  for  France, 
I  think  of  something  besides  Europe.  I  think  of  Africa.  I 


am  going  in  a  few  months  on  what  1  regard  as  the  most  diffi¬ 
cult  and  responsible  mission  on  which  I  have  ever  been  sent, 
to  conduct  missionary  conferences  in  the  Mohammedan  world, 
beginning  with  Algiers.  I  go  there  by  design,  as  the  key. 
French  Africa  connotes  Algiers,  Tunis,  Tripoli.  Remember 
that  the  Moslem  advance  is  pressing  down  like  a  gigantic 
glacier  toward  the  heart  of  Africa,  from  French  Africa  as  well 
as  from  other  parts  of  Northern  Moslem  Africa.  There  is  a 
gigantic  continent,  one  tied  into  the  very  life  of  our  American 
continent  by  centuries  of  tragedy,  and  we  are  still  paying  our 
price  and  will  continue  to  pay  it ;  we  are  treading  the  wine  press 
still.  Interested  in  Africa!  Certainly,  we  are  interested  in 
Africa.  Responsible  for  Africa!  Certainly.  And  we  cannot 
discharge  it  all  the  way  by  our  southern  States.  We  will  con¬ 
tinue  to  do  what  we  may  there.  To  reach  French  Africa,  the 
most  difficult  part  of  Africa,  and  to  shiver  the  Moslem  power 
at  its  base,  is  true  strategy.  We  can  do  it  best  by  way  of 
France.  I  said  to  Dr.  Roegner,  a  man  of  saintly  life,  called 
to  his  reward — some  of  you  may  have  heard  him  when  he  was 
here  two  years  ago — I  said  to  him,  “Obviously,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world  must  do  some  of  its  best  work  for  the  African 
continent  by  way  of  the  French  Protestants,  that  is  what  we 
do  inside  of  France.”  He  saw  that,  and  it  was  at  my  encour¬ 
agement  that  he  came  over  here  to  widen  the  clientele  of  that 
wonderful  missionary  expansive  movement. 

We  ought  to  think  of  Asia  as  well  as  Africa.  The  two 
largest  unoccupied  areas  on  earth  tonight  are,  one,  in  the  heart 
of  Africa,  with  about  twenty  millions  of  people,  among  whom 
there  is  not  one  Protestant  missionary,  and  French  Indo-China 
and  the  peoples  immediately  adjacent;  another  area  in  which 
there  are  nearly,  if  not  quite,  twenty  millions  more  with  vir¬ 
tually  no  Protestant  missionary  movement  among  them.  There 
is  the  meaning  of  the  two  flanks.  Is  it  not  significant  that 
the  two  greatest  unoccupied  masses  of  people  can  best  be 
approached  by  our  strengthening  the  hands  of  Christianity  in 
France?  It  is  a  matter  much  overlooked  by  us  Anglo-Saxons, 
who  have  been  priding  ourselves  so  long  that  we  hold  the  key 
to  almost  every  situation.  Thus,  I  say,  there  is  a  strategy,  and 
it  is  a  world-wide  strategy.  We  cannot  stop  with  Europe  and 


Asia  and  Africa  and  Latin  America.  I  remind  you  that  in 
Paris  alone  are  about  8000  foreign  students.  I  mean  students 
from  outside  of  France.  True  it  is,  it  is  the  Mecca  of  most 
of  the  ambitious  French  students,  but  it  is  likewise  a  Mecca 
of  students  from  every  quarter  of  the  world.  Those  foreign 
8000  students  represent  thirty  different  nations  at  least.  We, 
as  Americans,  have  a  big  stake  over  there.  Think  of  the  num¬ 
bers  of  young  men  and  women  there,  studying  not  only  in  the 
universities,  but  studying  art,  music  and  other  subjects.  Hap¬ 
pily  we  have  come  to  recognize  our  responsibility  to  our  own, 
but  I  have  sometimes  thought  we  could  not  do  a  better  thing 
for  our  own  than  to  make  more  expansive  our  sacrifice  on 
behalf  of  the  French  themselves,  our  hosts,  that  we  might  do 
something  that  would  raise  ideals,  stimulate  zeal,  increase  the 
stream  of  vitality.  It  would  come  back  to  us  many  fold. 

The  McAll  Mission  is  designed  to  have  a  large  part  in  the 
capturing  of  this  strategic  nation  and  people  and  relating  its 
energies  to  the  continents  of  the  world.  You  ask  me  why? 
Because  it  is  so  broad  in  its  platform  and  in  its  sympathies. 
It  appeals  to  all  genuine  Christians,  no  matter  what  our  name. 
It  has  a  platform  on  which  we  can  all  stand  with  conscientious¬ 
ness  and  with  conviction.  Moreover,  it  is  a  movement  that 
utilizes  the  forces  at  hand.  I  remarked  in  my  opening  sen¬ 
tences  that  I  know  of  no  project  more  economical.  The  reason 
is  that  it  lays  hold  of  forces  right  there  in  France.  It  draws  its 
recruits,  its  messengers,  its  interpreters,  its  mediators,  its 
guides  and  teachers,  its  apostles,  from  the  French  Protestant 
population.  It  does  not  have  the  large  expense  of  sending  out 
many  foreign  missionaries.  Then,  another  thing  that  has  al¬ 
ways  impressed  me  about  the  McAll  Mission  is  its  extreme  sim¬ 
plicity.  It  is  not  spending  vast  sums  of  ‘money,  as  we  are 
obliged  to  spend,  and  as  we  wisely  spend,  in  China  and  India 
and  Japan,  in  great  hospitals  and  Christian  universities  and 
printing  establishments.  From  the  very  nature  of  its  limita¬ 
tions  it  has  been  driven  to  adopt  some  methods  that  are  ex¬ 
tremely  simple.  The  masses  shrinking  from  the  churches  as 
they  do,  the  McAll  Mission  has  found  it  can  best  reach  them 
without  great  expensive  churches.  It  does  not  need  to  repro¬ 
duce  colleges  or  medical  establishments.  Therefore  its  means 


are  very  simple.  It  gets  the  maximum  of  output  with  the 
minimum  of  expenditure.  Another  good  thing  about  that  Mis¬ 
sion,  it  employs  what  I  call  the  vital  processes.  What  are  these 
vital  processes  ?  Well,  of  course,  the  most  vital  process  that 
any  man  ever  employs  is  that  of  relating  individuals,  one  by 
one,  to  the  fountainhead  of  vitality,  the  one  who  said,  not  only, 
“I  am  the  way  and  the  truth,”  but,  “I  am  the  vitality.”  There 
is  no  work  so  highly  multiplied  as  the  work  of  taking  a  life 
that  is  suffering  atrophy,  that  is  shriveling  and  dying, — what 
is  death  but  separation  from  life? — and  relating  that  life  to 
the  fountain  of  vitality.  The  McAll  Mission  is  busy  day  and 
night — I  use  that  expression  literally,  day  and  night — in  bring¬ 
ing  people  in  touch  with  this  life-giving  stream. 

A  second  vital  method  it  employs  is  that  of  preaching. 
There  is  a  quaint  word  in  the  Bible  that  it  pleased  God  by  the 
foolishness  of  preaching  to  save.  It  is  the  method,  say  what 
we  may  in  some  countries,  with  the  French  mentality.  There 
is  no  method  more  appealing  than  good  preaching;  and,  con¬ 
trary  to  the  popular  impression,  they  will  gather  in  multitudes, 
they  will  throng  these  temporary  chapels,  they  will  gather  in 
the  open  air  in  great  crowds,  to  hear  the  living  Evangel.  One 
of  the  most  inspiring  demonstrations  I  have  ever  seen  of  the 
present-day  power  of  preaching,  I  have  seen  in  connection  with 
this  Mission  in  my  journeys  in  France. 

I  think  in  some  ways  the  most  vital  method  next  to  the 
first  one  I  named  is  the  way  they  have  of  bringing  these  people, 
the  men  and  the  women,  and  as  fast  as  possible  little  children, 
into  touch  with  the  Bible,  the  literature  that  releases  the  vital 
entity.  DeQuincey  has  divided  all  literature  into  the  literature 
of  knowledge  and  the  literature  of  power.  These  are  pre¬ 
eminently  the  writings  of  power.  They  vibrate  with  the 
energies  of  the  other  world.  A  Jewess  student  was  speaking 
to  me  one  day  and  made  a  striking  remark  about  the  words 
of  Christ.  She  said,  “They  make  me  want  to  obey  them.” 
That  is,  they  not  only  persuade  the  mind  but  they  release  im¬ 
pulses  that  stimulate  the  will.  It  reminds  me  of  what  a  man 
said  to  me  one  day,  “Behind  the  sermon  on  the  mount  I  heard 
the  voice  of  the  living  God.  Henceforth  I  could  not  con¬ 
scientiously  do  wrong.”  It  calls  to  memory  also  the  remark 


15 


of  another  man  whom  I  met  in  the  Near  East,  who  said,  “The 
historical  portions  of  the  Gospels  interest  me,  but  those  other 
parts  of  the  Book  of  John  make  my  conscience  tremble.”  When 
I  was  in  one  of  the  Latin  republics  I  asked  the  question,  “What 
is  the  principal  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  Christianity  ?”  I  was 
answered,  “The  Ten  Commandments.”  What  he  meant  was 
that  if  we  would  run  on  the  lines  of  least  resistance  it  would 
advance  by  leaps  and  bounds,  but  that  here  was  a  new  energy 
that  awakened  conscience,  strengthened  the  will,  set  itself 
against  the  tide,  up  stream.  So  wherever  I  have  found  this 
McAll  Mission  working  I  have  found  people  gathering  about 
these  pages,  and,  my  friends,  in  those  places  I  have  found  the 
beauty  that  is  in  the  world.  It  has  reminded  me  of  some  of 
those  gushing  fountains  that  occasionally  in  my  travels  I  have 
seen  in  the  deserts — everything  like  spring  about  it.  “Every¬ 
thing  shall  prosper  whither  this  river  goeth.” 

I  close  by  answering  this  question :  What  is  most  needed 
in  this  McAll  Mission  ?  One  thing  we  must  do  is  to  widen  the 
plans.  I  have  only  one  criticism  with  reference  to  the  McAll 
Mission,  and  that  I  mentioned  at  the  dinner  table  tonight  to 
the  most  able,  brilliant  and  helpful  executive  leader,  Dr.  Berry. 
I  said,  “The  one  fault  I  have  to  find  is  that  this  work  is  pro¬ 
jected  on  too  small  a  plan ;”  I  said,  “If  you  can  do  as  much  good 
as  is  now  being  done  with  this  present  expenditure  for  a  mil¬ 
lion  people  directly  and  indirectly,  why  not  widen  out  the  plan 
and  touch  several  millions?”  I  do  not  see  any  good  reason  why 
not.  I  think  it  is  the  call  of  Almighty  God,  and  I  say  that 
weighing  my  words,  that  we  should  widen  our  plans.  And  the 
second  thing  that  is  needed  is  to  keep  in  mind  the  strategy.  I 
have  said  enough  on  that  tonight.  However,  I  want  to  say  one 
word  more  about  it.  When  we  were  having  the  Volunteer 
Convention  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  a  few  years  ago,  one  night  we 
received  a  cable  message  from  Japan  in  this  language:  “Japan 
is  leading  the  Orient,  but  whither?”  I  want  to  transfer  that 
tonight  to  France  and  say,  “France  is  leading  Latin  Europe, 
Latin  America,  the  Balkan  States,  the  Levant,  French  Moslem 
Africa,  Indo-China,  and,  in  a  very  real  sense,  Russia — but 
whither  ?”  Remember  what  I  have  said  about  flank  movements 
as  contrasted  with  frontal  attacks  ?  And  the  other  thing  needed 


i6 

Pv. 

is  a  larger  measure  of  sacrifice.  After  all  the  Christian  religion 
is  a  movement  of  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  the  spirit  of  Christ 
has  ever  been  best  characterized  by  people  who  have  sounded 
the  depths  as  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  Make  the  Gospel 
difficult  and  you  make  it  triumphant.  Jesus  Christ  never  hid 
his  scars  to  win  a  disciple.  “The  pleasures  of  the  earth  evap¬ 
orate  in  air.  It  is  our  pains  that  increase  the  spiritual  momen¬ 
tum  of  the  world.”  The  life  of  sacrifice  that  Christ  lived 
reached  farther  than  from  Gethsemane  to  the  cross.  It  was 
literally  a  life  of  laying  down  Himself,  of  spending  Himself. 
He  taught  the  principle  that  I  have  found  revolutionizing  the 
world :  “Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die 
it  abideth  by  itself  alone,  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit.”  Therefore  let  us  associate  ourselves  tonight  in  some 
fresh  measure  with  Christ  in  that  expansive  sacrifice  without 
which  France  and  the  rest  of  the  world  will  not  be  conquered. 


American  Me  All  Association,  1710  Chestnut  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


